Wellard congratulates Santori on 50,000th ESCAS cattle

September 11, 2012

Long time Wellard client and Indonesia’s largest cattle breeder and importer, PT Santosa Agrindo (Santori), has celebrated a landmark milestone in the adoption of Australia’s Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS), with the 50,000th animal passing through its ESCAS supply chain.

The supply chain and monitoring system established by Santori is without peer, enabling Santori to identify the individual animal, its owner, its exporter (Wellard) and even the trucking operator that transported the steer from ship to feedlot and feedlot to abattoir.

The Santori system is equivalent too, or better than, many feedlot and abattoir information systems in Australia, and is more rigourous than the traceability systems regulatory authorities require from cattle supply chains in Australia.

Wellard South East Asia General Manager Scot Braithwaite said Santori deserved tremendous credit for the way it had embraced ESCAS.

“Santori’s feedlot and abattoir infrastructure was already very good, but the systems and monitoring it now has in place is world-class. It is a real ESCAS-plus model and reflective of the professionalism of Santori’s management, employees and operations,” Mr Braithwaite said.

“The 50,000th ESCAS animal is a world first in a first class system.”

In addition to supplying Santori with livestock on its modern shipping fleet, Wellard assists with data provision in a format that complements the Santori Management Information System (MIS).

In a validation of how powerful the company’s MIS is, Santori Procurement and Welfare Manager Charles Mok demonstrated how he could use a combination of animal records and CCTV to bring up real time vision of the steer’s feedlot pen on a monitor in the Santori head office 250 kilometres from the feedlot itself.Santori has invested more than $800,000 to get the system up and running.

“This is an investment in the sustainability of the live cattle trade between Australia and Indonesia and we hope it will help re-establish the public’s confidence in the high standard of welfare for animals exported from Australia,” Mr Braithwaite said.

The 50,000th steer was 341kg Brahman cross steer from the Australian Agricultural Company’s Brunette Downs. It was transported on board Wellard’s MV Ocean Drover to the port of Panjang on the island of Sumatra.

By the time it was processed after 120 days on feed, Santori had acquired 43 different fields of data for the steer, including NLIS number, vendor, exporter feedlot entry weight, fat score, abattoir number, and carcase yield.

Background – Wellard Rural and TradingWellard is a world leader in the production and distribution of livestock and grain.

Its two largest subsidiaries are Wellard Rural Exports, Australia’s largest livestock exporter and ship owner, and Wellard Agri, a large mixed farming land owner and operator specialising in the production of grains, legumes and livestock.

Wellard Rural Exports has supplied quality dairy and beef cattle and sheep and goats to the world for more than 30 years, and its investment in the live export industry is without peer. Based in Fremantle, Western Australia, the company’s operations cover every aspect of the export chain, including feed milling, livestock aggregation, road transport, feedlot facilities throughout Australia and modern shipping.

The company’s flagship carrier, the MV Ocean Drover (formerly the MV Becrux), is a purpose-built livestock carrier capable of carrying 75,000 sheep or 18,000 cattle to major markets around the globe. She was commissioned in 2002.

Two new, technologically advanced, purpose-built vessels, the MV Ocean Swagman and the MV Ocean Outback, were launched in 2010. They offer unparalleled levels of safety for the livestock, crew and vessel, and can transport 7000 cattle, 25,000 sheep, or a combination of both.

Wellard Agri owns and operates eight farms covering 33,000 hectares across three agri-hubs. The two northern hubs are located at Dongara and Watheroo in Western Australia’s central midlands and one is located at Kojonup in the Great Southern region of WA.

The Dongara hub is home to The Grange, a 14,500 hectare property which is considered one of Western Australia’s blue chip farming properties.

The remaining landholding totals more than 18,000 hectares, of which 14,000 hectares is cropped to a variety of grains and legumes. The other 4000ha is devoted to sheep production, including the famous Hyfield Poll Merino stud at Kojonup. In addition, Wellard leases an additional 14,500ha for livestock and grain production.

Wellard Agri also has operations in the farm machinery sector, through management of the CLAAS Harvest Centres at Katanning, Wongan Hills and Esperance for the Landpower range of farm machinery.